The Exodus is underway Romania has precious little that the world wants except its children it's Romania 1980 and just like any other country hundreds of children are being born every day however in this country at that time their parents were forced to do something that most parents would never ever want to do these children most of them less than a month old were sent away to huge orphanages to be raised in places like this why did this happen how did this affect the children and where are some of them today hey everyone welcome back to Bear it in mind in this video we're going to consider the effects of being raised in an institution in terms of its impact on a child's attachment and their overall development and we're going to do so through the tragic real world case of the Romanian orphans an institution refers to living outside your family home in places like children's homes hospitals or orphanages where many children live for a long period of time in the 1960s Nikolai chesu was the Communist ruler of Romania and he believed that he could help grow the economy and wealth of the country through population growth by 1977 people were taxed for being childless the expectation was for families to have five children and contraception was banned in the country however by the 1980s Romania had very little money because of its struggling economy and this meant that they had an overpopulated country without the money to care for its children and so parents were left with the terrible situation where they were completely unable to provide for their children and were left with sending them to huge orphanages one report States conditions in these orphan ities varied from poor to appalling the children were confined to cots there were few if any toys or play things very little talk from caregivers and an environment that was frequently physically harsh it was estimated that at least 100,000 children were sent to these orphanages then on Christmas day in 1989 dictator Nicola chesu was killed and it was in the days that followed that these hidden away orphanages came to light media from around the world came to investigate and reveal what had been going on these TV reports made their way into the living rooms of homes in the United Kingdom and moved many families to want to adopt these children this couple broke the law to give two orphans a home with so many families in Britain adopting Romanian children the English and Romania adoptee study was set up to follow a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in the UK Michael rter a leading expert in his field known as the father of child psychiatry was tasked with leading the research one reason for this research was firstly for the Department of Health to know how to best support and help these children but the other interest of the study was to find out to what extent would recovery be possible when extremely depriving conditions in early life were followed by generally good conditions in middle childhood in other words could a good adoptive home repair the poor early experiences the children had in the institutions so these 165 Romanian orphans were tracked longitudinally which simply means that they were followed over a long period of time they were compared with a control group of 52 British children who had not been in an institution but had been adopted before the age of 6 months both groups of children were first assessed at four years of age using a combination of Parental reports direct observations and and psychometric assessments and Then followed up again at 6 11 and 15 years age so what did they find while those adopted early quickly caught up with the British children the catch up in both physical growth and cognitive abilities appeared nearly complete at four years for those children who came to the UK before the age of 6 months but serious problems continued in a minority of the children adopted after the age of 6 months so despite the catch up in their development for many of the orphans there were some children who had significant delays at each age they were assessed what were some of these delays the researchers noted four unusual patterns firstly quasi autism quazi meaning almost or not really they called it quazi autism because the children were not clinically autistic but they had some of the symptoms of autism they show problems understanding the meaning of social context and additionally one behavior that stood out as an autistic trait was obsessive behaviors for example one child was obsessed with the details of Plumbing Systems another child had an intense interest in shiny new1 pound notes with another child obsessed about watches secondly there was disinhibited attachment this showed itself in the children not knowing what appropriate behavior was towards strangers if you can think back to your knowledge of the strange situation typical behavor you for a child when a stranger enters a room will be to show anxiety of some description and to return to their caregiver as a safe base however some of the Romanian orphan children showed a lack of weariness towards strangers failed to return to a caregiver in unfamiliar settings and showed a willingness to wander away from a caregiver and off with a stranger in other words they behave towards a stranger like they would towards their caregiver rter suggests this might be because the children in the orphanages were being looked after by many different caregivers rather than one caregiver who they see regularly enough to form a secure attachment too thirdly there was inattention and overactivity at age six those Romanian orphan children who had been adopted after the age of 6 months showed higher inattention and overactivity in other words they found it difficult to pay attention and concentrate and found it difficult to control their impulses whereas those adop before the age of 6 months were no different from the UK adopted children fourthly and finally they showed cognitive impairment particularly in relation to intelligence or IQ the average IQ score is 100 for those adopted before 6 months of age the mean IQ was 102 at age 11 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years the mean IQ was 86 at 11 for those adopted after two 2 years the mean IQ was 77 in other words they showed delayed intellectual development and low IQ you can imagine that at school they would struggle more than the other children and would not learn things as quickly taking all this into account Rutter's conclusion having followed the children up to the age of 15 years was that the effects of institutional deprivation are not fixed for many they can recover the damaging effects of institutional care can be reversed given a supportive and strong adoptive family now if you're interested in evaluating the remaining orphan studies you can click the video on the screen now or Linked In the description below or if you want to jump to a video that explores how your early attachments go on to influence your romantic relationships or how you parent or even bullying you can click that video on the screen or linked below too I hope you found this video helpful and we'll see you in the next one